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OAKLAND — A deadly combination of skunk afterglow and sewage fumes filtered throughout one side of the Coliseum well after everyone but media and stadium staff had left.

People covered their noses and mouths, zig-zagging through the bowels of the stadium so their dinner stayed down. One security guard joked he had eaten a rotten burrito, but the stench was no joke. This was serious. It stunk. Real bad.

But even as a horrid smell soured the night of everyone still at the Coliseum, it was hardly the most foul part of the night.

That honor, of course, belonged to the Raiders, specifically their second-half atrocity in a season-opening 33-13 defeat to the Rams. The hosts held a 13-10 lead at halftime against one of the Super Bowl favorites, but a 23-0 second half advantage to the visitors began Jon Gruden’s second era in Oakland with a thud.

“They were impressive. They had balance today, they could run it and throw it,” Gruden said. “They proved their stuff tonight in the second half. Offensively, we just couldn’t get anything going. We turned the ball over, we failed to pick up a blitz one time. It was very disappointing.”

The game couldn’t have started much better for the Raiders, who rode a 45-yard Derek Carr-to-Jared Cook connection to an eventual 10-yard touchdown run from the ever-churning legs of Marshawn Lynch. The Raiders’ top back was stonewalled around the 3-yard line, but a hefty push from his offensive linemen earned six points and the game’s first score. Carr completed 12 of his first 13 passes for 145 efficient yards, zipping balls not to star wideout Amari Cooper but Cook, Lynch, Doug Martin, Jordy Nelson, Derek Carrier and Jalen Richard.

Everyone got the love, and Gruden’s offense that remained a mystery until Monday night seemed to click against a ferocious Rams defense that features two Pro Bowl defensive tackles and two more Pro Bowl cornerbacks.

But one Carr underthrow changed the entire game. A touchdown would’ve given the Raiders a 17-7 lead with under five minutes remaining in the first half. Instead, Carr short-armed a streaking Cook, and Rams safety John Johnson plucked the ball from mid-air in the end zone. The Rams’ ensuing drive ended in a Greg Zuerlein field goal that tied the game at 10. After Carr’s first of three interceptions on the night, the Rams outscored the Raiders, 26-3.

“Our execution as an offense – whether it’s bad throws, miscommunication, all that kind of stuff, stuff that usually happens in a first game, but you don’t really pay the consequence for them all the time,” Carr said. “But we did today. And that’s my fault. I have to do a better job for my team and I will.”

The Raiders even carried a three-point edge into halftime against the juggernaut Rams, but that advantage didn’t last long. Zuerlein hit a 28-yard chip shot less than six minutes into the third, and the Raiders never led again. In fact, they never scored again, while Los Angeles piled on 20 more points.

Carr was left flummoxed, throwing his arms to his side and palms to the sky in confusion when talking with Gruden. The quarterback barked at Richard after an incompletion in which the two were clearly on different pages. Carr lofted his second interception of the night into the hands of Rams linebacker Cory Littleton, with no Raiders in the same zip code. Boos rained down from the stands well before the game ended, and fans near the Raiders bench peppered Gruden and Carr with jeers as their once-promising night snowballed out of control.

“It’s not time for that anymore,” Gruden said when asked to reminisce about his return. “It is about getting this football team better. It wasn’t good enough tonight.”

To put one final exclamation point on the night, cornerback Marcus Peters returned Carr’s third pick of the night all the way to the house. As he neared the goal line, he turned his back to the end zone, leaped in the air, stuck his left arm up while grasping the ball and grabbed his, uh, pelvic area with his right hand. Remember when a certain Marshawn Lynch, Peters’ close friend and fellow Oakland native, did the same with the Seahawks?

“I did the Beastmode,” Peters said after the game. “That’s what I did.”

It was the best thing anybody associated with the town of Oakland did all night, a fitting end to the most foul of performances any team could put forth in a single half.

Fans escorted the Raiders off the field with boos. Players, however, remained optimistic postgame. So too did Gruden. Carr said this loss feels different than any he’s ever had, mainly because his head coach remained so positive.

As Gruden left the locker room, his final words fittingly summed up the night.

Dressed in full suit and still wearing his coaching visor, Gruden headed for the door.

“How do I get out of here,” he joked, searching for any dose of humor in an otherwise dreadful night, the Raiders forced to see any sort of light as it is, after all, just one game.